1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and system for managing supplies and performance in a collision center.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various systems and methods for managing supplies and/or performance are known to those in the related art. Examples of such systems and methods are disclosed in United States Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0130820 (the '820 publication) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,575,365 (the '365 patent).
The '820 publication discloses a system and method for managing work orders for performing maintenance tasks. The system and method logs the start and stop time that a technician works on one of the work orders. The total elapsed time taken by the technician to complete the work order is calculated and compared with benchmarks or other work orders or other technicians. From this comparison, a productivity and efficiency of the technician is measured based solely on the time taken by the technician to perform the work order. The '820 publication does not disclose a system or method to measure productivity and efficiency of the technician based on factors other than the time taken to perform the work order.
The '365 patent discloses a system and method for providing supplies to a collision center. The system and method involves scanning bar codes which are disposed on bins in the collision center. Each bar code corresponds to the products stored in the bins. An order is generated for the products whose bar codes is scanned. The order is transmitted from the collision center to an Internet web site. The order is then transmitted from the web site to a supplier. Unfortunately, the system and method disclosed by the '365 patent requires a person to perform an inventory check of the supplies from time-to-time, thus costing the collision center or the supplier additional labor time. Furthermore, the '365 patent does not disclose the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags for identifying the products stored in the bins.